Know Thine Enemy: Let's Go Tribe
The Twins saw Mitch Talbot back on April 22, when he logged a victory after holding Minnesota to one unearned run over six innings. Since his strong April he's had ups and downs, but he's been pretty decent for a back-of-the-rotation guy.
He has his weaknesses, in that his control can waiver from time to time--evidenced by a very lackluster walk-to-strikeout ratio. He also allows too many base runners in general. In his favor is a pretty good ground ball rate (48.3%), and a brilliant home run to fly ball rate (7.1%). Talbot will lean on the fastball (both a four-seamer and a cutter), throwing them a combined 80% of the time on first pitch and going to it even more often when he's behind. When he's ahead or working with two strikes he'll lean on the changeup a lot more often. The slider is almost used as a pitch to keep hitters from sitting fastball or changeup--it disappears when he's behind and against left-handed hitters.
Kevin had a rough return from the disabled list, tossing 77 pitches and getting pulled after just four innings in which the Royals scored just two runs but notched seven hits and a walk. Slowey gets another soft-toss offense today, but he'll need to be more sharp than he was last week if he wants to pitch long enough to get a win. If he can just throw strikes today, and keep the ball out of Hafner's and Choo's hammer zones, he should be able to get through the day by pitching to contact. Hopefully.
Twins
Span, CF
Hudson, 2B
Mauer, C
Kubel, RF
Cuddyer, 1B
Thome, DH
Young, LF
Valencia, 3B
Casilla, SS
Brantley, CF
Cabrera, SS
Choo, RF
Hafner, DH
Nix, 3B
Brown, LF
LaPorta, 1B
Valbuena, 2B
Gimenez, C